Chemistry Practical Activities

The practical activities below are designed to complement the Shedding Light on Atoms series and the Shedding Light on Acids and Bases series.

Making and Testing Carbon Dioxide Practical Activity
Students produce carbon dioxide using calcium carbonate (limestone) and hydrochloric acid, and then examine its ability to extinguish a fire.

 

 

Making and Testing Oxygen Practical Activity.
Students produce oxygen gas from hydrogen peroxide using manganese dioxide as a catalyst. They then examine how an increase in the abundance of oxygen can increase the severity of a fire.

 

Making and Testing Hydrogen Practical Activity.
Students collect hydrogen gas in a beaker of soapy water and then light it on fire. If you want, you can then do a demo that combines this prac with the oxygen prac, but just make sure that you wear ear protection. It’s loud!!!
The video shows exactly how the students can do the prac and also how you can set up the demo.

Producing and Analyzing Magnesium Oxide (MgO) Practical Activity.
This practical activity asks students to produce magnesium oxide in a crucible and to then analyze its chemical composition. It was experiments like this one that led to the discovery of atoms and to the determination of how heavy atoms are compared to each other.
(Our Shedding Light on Atoms Episode 3: The Discovery of Atoms video gives more details.)

The practical activities above work beautifully with the 8-part Shedding Light on Atoms video series.
Using amazing demonstrations and animations we take students on a journey of discovery to explain not just what we know about atoms, but also how we know what we know about atoms! Each video comes with a worksheet.


The first three episodes form a trilogy. They cover concepts like

  • chemical reactions,
  • elements, compounds, and mixtures, and
  • the Law of Conservation of Mass and more.

Along the way, they also answer the most-asked question of them all: how do we know about atoms if we can’t even see them? (It comes down to chemical reactions!)
The other videos, as you can tell from their titles, cover

  • the Periodic Table,
  • atomic structure, and
  • bonding


They continue to draw heavily on the key concepts of how experiments and evidence led us to an understanding of these things, but also cover patterns in chemical behaviour and reactions and, of course, bonding.

There are plenty of real-world examples of the important role that chemistry plays in our lives.
As I said, each video comes with a question sheet.